1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to floor sanding and more particularly to a two wheel hand truck for moving the floor sander from one location to another, from a vehicle to work station via ramps, and supporting the floor sander with the wheels thereof in a no load state when the sander is not in use.
2. Background Information
Floor sanders conventionally have a sanding drum on a frame that is carried by a front pair of wheels and a single rear caster type wheel. The wheels have a rubber tire (relatively hard) and because of the weight of these machines the tires develop a flat spot when they sit idle for any length of time. Flat spots on the tires are most undesirable as they cause the machine to go up and down while the machine traverses the floor area during sanding. This leaves an undulating surface when all the flat spots are in sync or gouges when they are not. The resultant surface in either event is most unsatisfactory and unacceptable for more reasons than just the undesirable aesthetic effect. For one thing polishing an undulating surface will cause more wear to the surface finish on the crests than in the valleys of the undulating surface. The end result is a premature failure of the surface finish.
A two wheel hand truck, commonly referred to as a dolly, has a vertical section with two wheels on the lower end thereof and a forwardly projecting spaced pair of arms, or a plate, for supporting the load. The upper end of the frame is a handle and the center of gravity of the unit is such that the unit stands upright on the two wheels when the unit in not in use. In this at rest position the plate is disposed in a slight decline and the leading end thereof engages the ground surface. During use, after the load is located on the arms, or the plate as the case maybe, the wheels serve as a pivot point while the user tilts the handle to a load transport position where the center of gravity of the dolly frame and the load passes through or is located near the axle on which the wheels are mounted. With heavy loads, such as a floor sander, the wheels of the dolly tend to roll while attempting to tilt the dolly making it necessary to block at least one of the wheels with some object and normally the user puts one foot on one wheel to prevent the dolly from moving.
When a heavy load is carried by a dolly it is relatively easy to move and control the same while traversing a level surface but this is not so on a sloping surface, for example on a steep driveway or ramp for loading and unloading the sander in a vehicle.
A floor sanding machine with a transport carriage is disclosed in United States Utility Patent 1,640,933 granted Aug. 30, 1927 to L. M. Gries. It is an integrated unit that does not teach discuss the problems regarding preventing rubber tired wheels on a sander from developing flat spots when not in use.
The present invention is for a hand truck for transporting a floor sander. More particularly, the present invention is for a combination of a conventional floor sander that is rollingly supported on rubber tired wheels during use of the machine to sand a floor and a wheeled hand truck. The hand truck or dolly includes a pair of spaced apart arms projecting forwardly therefrom adjacent a lower end thereof. Also included are means removably mounted on the arms and supporting the sander on the dolly forwardly projecting arms with the wheels of the sander in a no load state and thereby preventing the tires from developing flat spots during idle time of the machine while in storage and transport from one work site to another. Means for detachably anchoring the sander to the dolly are also included.
The dolly may also include means removably mounted on the arms such as a pair of cross members slidably mounted on the arms. A means of interconnecting the pair of arms to maintain the same in a fixed spaced apart relation such as a flat strap may also be used with the dolly and sander arrangement. The cross members may also have a slot adjacent each of opposite ends thereof slidably receiving therein respective ones of the forwardly projecting arms.
Moreover, the dolly has an upwardly projecting frame portion with handle means on the upper end thereof, a forwardly projecting load carrying member on the lower end of the frame and a pair of wheels on opposite edges of the frame adjacent the lower end thereof the improvement comprising a hand operated brake operable on at least one of the wheels to selectively restrain rotation of the same, the brake having a hand operable lever mounted on the frame adjacent the handle means. The handle means may define a laterally spaced pair of loops on the upper end of the frame and projecting forwardly therefrom. The load carrying member on the lower end of the frame may define a pair of laterally space apart arms, and each of the arms are may be positioned so that they are right angular in cross-section. The dolly may also include a pair of cross members slidably mounted on and extending from one of the arms to the other for supporting an object thereon.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a floor sander with a dolly that can be used to support the sander and transport the same from one location to another with the sander wheels in a no load state thereby eliminating the development of flat spots on the wheels that otherwise occurs during down time between sanding jobs.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a dolly, for transporting objects, with a hand operated wheel brake to facilitate tilting the dolly from an object pick-up position to an object transport position.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide the forgoing sander and dolly combination and in which the dolly is a stair type and including a hand operated wheel brake.
In keeping with the forgoing there is provided in accordance with one aspect of the present invention the combination of a conventional floor sander that is rollingly supported on rubber tired wheels during use of the machine to sand a floor and a hand truck on which the floor sander is detachably supported and carried such that the wheels are in a no load state during idle time of the machine while in storage and transport from one work site to another.